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With just weeks until Donald Trump takes office, the future of trade between the U.S. and Mexico looks deeply uncertain, as a storm of possible tariffs and border walls brews. For entrepreneurs Juan Pablo Ramos and Daniel Autrique, it’s a tempest headed straight for their startup—and they’re ready.
Since 2022, Ramos and Autrique have been taking on the tough challenge of building trust between manufacturers in the U.S. and Mexico. They’ve been using technology to build a bridge across an already-complicated business terrain, frequently marked by undelivered orders, missed payments, and broken promises.
"The trust is broken, and goes both ways," said Autrique, who cofounded Prima with Ramos and their fellow Stanford MBA Patricio Servitje. Prima, which today serves more than 200 customers, is a tech-forward manufacturing and supply chain integrator. The company was conceived with cross-border U.S.-Mexico business relationships in mind, and the startup has attracted interest and investment from a broad list of backers.
Prima raised $23 million in new Series A backing earlier this year, a few months before Trump’s election victory. The Series A included investors Acrew, Nazca, and Quona Capital. This brings Prima’s total capital raised to $42.5 million, as the company is also disclosing for the first time an additional $19.5 million in previous funding. Prima’s other investors include Box Group, Canary, Endeavor, Fluent Ventures, Greenoaks, K50 Ventures, Marathon Ventures, NXTP, and Picus Capital.
The return of Trump, who has threatened to levy heavy tariffs on both Mexico and Canada when he becomes president again next month, doesn’t change a fundamental truth, Ramos says—that we’re in the midst of a "monumental supply chain transformation."
"Governments change, tariffs shift—that’s the intrinsic reality of doing business in global supply chains," said Ramos. "Within the current landscape, the U.S. faces a shortage of qualified blue-collar labor, and rising tensions with China are driving a fundamental shift in global supply chains—one that cannot be easily swayed by political posturing."
Prima serves as a one-stop shop for Mexican manufacturers, offering financial support, engineering, technology, and end-to-end services—handling everything from lead generation to delivery and invoicing—so manufacturers can focus on production. Ramos and Autrique told me that they were thrilled and a touch intimidated back when they received their very first purchase order for $8,000. There’s since been a lot of distance traveled. When I spoke to them, their most recent order was from a Minnesota mining company for $4 million.